It’s shocking how a comment left on MySpace can be blown out of proportion and cause such a storm.

It looks like 2PM‘s leader, Jae-bum, couldn’t handle all the negative comments from the netizens and has made an official announcement stating that he will resign from 2PM. It has been reported that Jae-bum has already notified JYP Entertainment about his decision to resign from 2PM and made an official statement on 2PM’s fan cafe earlier today...A representative of JYP has confirmed that Jae-bum’s resignation from the group is true. Jae-bum will return to his family in Seattle for the time being and the future of Jae-bum will be further discussed for the time being. (http://popseoul.com/2009/09/08/jae-bum-quits-2pm/)

Kass got to work from school and found the office to still be surrounded in a negative atmosphere. Everyone was a lot quieter as they dealt with their lines of work, and as Kass ran around to do her job she was often met with a sharp comment or a tired one, staying true to the mood.

The departure of Jay had come as a shock to everyone. She knew Jay was close with everyone from One Day to her own roommates. Although it was understandable that everyone would be in a depressed mood, Kass couldn’t stand it. A part of her wanted to take out her frustrations by yelling at the top of her lungs.  The thought of leaving the company had also occurred to her, but she knew that it wouldn’t be fair. One person had already left and they didn’t need another person to add to their list. Someone needed to keep this place alive and Kass almost felt as if it were her job to do so.

She was looking around for Coordi-unnie when she lightly bumped into somebody and dropped the pile of documents she had in her hands.

“Watch where you’re going kid!” an older male hissed at her before walking off.

“Sorry!” she called back but he had already disappeared around the corner. “Yah! Aish, seriously.” She sighed loudly, bending down to pick up the scattered pieces of paper around her. She already had had a rough day at school. Her lecturers had told her that if she didn’t pass the next set of exams she’d have to repeat the semester. Unfortunately for her the news couldn’t have come at a worst time, and she knew she couldn’t ask Chansung or Junho to help her out.

After piling up the remaining documents, Kass leaned back against the wall in the empty hallway and took the opportunity to rest her eyes. She had had some trouble sleeping (as did everyone else) and coming to work straight after school wasn’t helping either.

Kass hadn’t realized she had nodded off until she felt a tap on her shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open as she tried to focus on the figure in front of her. Taecyeon?

“Does Coordi-noona know you’ve been sleeping on the job?” Kass took out her phone in response to check the time as her eyes flew open and her body straightened out in surprise.

“Aishh! Unnie’s gonna kill me.” She scrambled to her feet, looking for the pile of documents but found they were nowhere in sight. Kass heard a small laugh coming from the young man standing in front of her. “Yah, why are you laughing?” she asked, a hint of annoyance in her tone.

“Kass-yah, don’t worry about it,” he told her with a smirk as she gave him a puzzled look. “I took the liberty of passing it to her while dozed off... I saw the documents lying beside you with her name on it and noona came by.” She muttered a ‘thanks’ and looked away, slightly embarrassed.

“Taec-oppa, shouldn’t you be in the practice room? I thought Mai-umma would be working you guys into the ground.” Taecyeon chuckled at the use of the girl’s added honorific.

“Namyong-hyung called it a day and she’s helping Wooyoungie perfect the ending so he’s got her all to himself,” he replied with a small laugh as the younger girl nodded and she pulled on her backpack. “Still with the ‘umma’ I see,” he teased. “What about you? Don’t you have places to run to rather than sleeping?”

“Well, since you did my job for me... Nope.” She shook her head smiling.

“Great. Then you can accompany me in the caf.” He put a hand lightly on her back, stirring her towards said direction and before she knew it they were already in the empty cafeteria. He sat her down at one of the tables before getting up to get some food.

As Kass waited for Taecyeon to come back, she drummed her fingers on the table before a sudden idea struck her. This would be the perfect time to help her unnie with Taecyeon. She could drop in Fuu’s name here and there in her conversation with the older boy. A mischievous smile crossed the girl’s face the more she thought about it.

Taecyeon came back with a tray full of food and placed a bowl of ice-cream in front of her. She looked up at him and opened to say something before he cut her off.

“I figured since this would probably be the only break you’re gonna get, you’ll need to keep your energy levels up,” he said casually as he placed a spoon in the bowl.

“Thanks. But why--”

“Chan and Junho told me. Your favourite right? Besides, you’ve been cheering, well trying to cheer, everyone up and no one’s cheering you up so...I hear ice-cream makes things better,” he stringed the sentence together rather awkwardly but ended with that toothy grin of his. She shook her head and laughed, taking a scoop of the chocolate ice-cream.

Kass was thinking how she could bring Fuu up into the conversation when she remembered that Fuu had asked her how Taecyeon was holding up after the whole...controversy. She still hated that word, even in her head.

“So how you holdin’ up?” she asked directly. Taecyeon didn’t look up from his ramyun. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so dire--”

“It’s okay. No one’s actually asked me that. I’m getting there,” he replied slowly. “I... I just miss him you know?” He paused and Kass could see him hesitating. She was regretting that she had brought up the topic in the first place. “I... really hope he comes back, soon,” he continued quietly. “Why? You worried about me?” Taecyeon asked smiling wryly as he looked up at Kass.

“Uh...no,” Kass replied bluntly as Taecyeon’s forced smile faltered. “It was Fuu-unnie who was worried actually. Not that...I don’t, like, care or anything... it’s just... I... you and unnie are friends right?”

Taecyeon chuckled at the girl as she was stuttering to change the topic. “Fuu? Yeah, I guess. I don’t see her around as often as you though, why?”

“Then you two should get to know each other better,” she replied quickly. “Since you were the first person she met at JYPE it’s only right for the two of you to be closer.”

Taecyeon hid a smile as he replied, “Really?”

Kass nodded rapidly. “We’re not always with her and you know how her Korean is...” Kass’ mind worked as she paused briefly. “It’d be nice if she had someone she knew well that could help her around because she gets lost easily and she can’t ask for instructions because her Korean is bad but she’s working on it,” she concluded, running out of breath.

Taecyeon chuckled quietly. “Kass-yah, you seemed to have thought about this quite a lot.”

“Not really.” She paused before that sly smile returned to the girl’s lips. “So, what do you say oppa?”

Mai held back the temptation to snap as she watched them repeat the steps that they had just learned. They’d been at it for several hours and the boys still hadn’t gotten the whole choreography down. If Namyong hadn’t been there, Mai would have blown her top.

“5, 6, 7, 8,” Namyong said aloud as he started the routine, his gaze periodically on the mirror as the six boys followed along. Mai surveyed them from her spot on the side, her face stern as she noticed numerous mistakes in their timing and movements.

Namyong stopped and turned around to look over at Mai. “How do they look from there?”

Mai’s eyes left Namyong’s and moved to the mirror to meet six exhausted faces. Her expression didn’t change as she replied, “Horrible. They can’t even get the 16 counts down right, let alone the entire chorus.”

Namyong turned to the boys in the room and sighed. “Again, without me. 5, 6, 7, 8.”

“The movement is straight from the chest, not just your shoulders and your arms,” Mai interrupted as they danced. “You’re getting distracted by the arm swinging. Move like you mean it. It’s your heartbeat, for crying out loud.” Mai bit down the urge to swear as they gave her a look of distaste.

Their comeback was in a month, and they needed to get the routine down by the time the music video was going to be shot. Not to mention that the netizens would be harsher than ever- their comeback performance had to be perfect. If there was ever a time that they had to really move to the lyrics, it was this one.

As Namyong went over to Junsu to fix some of his steps, Mai walked over to where Nichkhun was standing quietly at the back. “On 7, your hands are pushing your chest back before you hang them up by your sides, including the chest and knee movements You’re not hitting hard enough.”

Nichkhun simply nodded as he attempted a smile. Mai didn’t return his failed attempt as she crossed her arms. She ignored the empty look on his face as she stared him down. “Show me.”

“Khun-hyung’s just tired.”

“I didn’t ask you.” Mai turned to lock eyes with Wooyoung who was standing nearby. The boy’s face was expressionless as he returned her gaze evenly.

“I’m okay,” Nichkhun interrupted, his eyes darting worryingly between Mai and Wooyoung. “Mai-ah, can you show me again?”

Mai turned away from Wooyoung and obliged, making sure she made her movements clear enough for Nichkhun to follow. As the latter repeated the steps to her standards, Mai was inwardly dreading the one-on-one time she was going to have to spend with Wooyoung working on the heartbeat ending.

Although Mai liked that Wooyoung was serious when they practiced, his seriousness had taken a darker tone in the past few weeks. Although the dark tone was evident in all the members, Mai didn’t want to admit it that of the six, she was hesitant to talk to him the most. The mood during practice had plummeted ever since the leader’s departure, and both Namyong and Mai were having a tough time dealing with the heavy atmosphere, not to mention the difficulties the choreographers were now facing balancing the routine with an even number of members.

“Mai-ah, you and Wooyoungie-ah can go and start on the ending.” Mai looked up at the sound of Namyong’s voice. “I think he has the routine down so you can help him on his cheat gainer.”

Mai nodded as she chanced a glance at the said individual. They had now gone through the choreography a numerous amount of time and both Namyong and Mai had begun to work on the separate positions of each member in the dance. As usual, Junho and Wooyoung caught on the fastest, leaving the remaining four under the watchful eyes of the choreographers.

Mai went over to the side of the practice room and reached for the mats behind the sound system. As she struggled with the awkward angle, a hand reached over to help her pull them out. Mai looked up to see Wooyoung’s blank expression as he moved the mats onto the ground, his eyes elsewhere.

Mai ignored the slow breeding annoyance she felt towards him as she moved to the side to give him some room. Wooyoung had already practiced the cheat gainer, a variation of the normal back flip by flipping a bit to the side. Wooyoung had already learned the basics to the flip and had had some practice, but Mai was there to make sure he did it properly, and land safely.

They both backed up at the same time; Mai to stay out of his way and Wooyoung to gain just a little momentum as he jumped. He landed and stumbled on the mat before pulling himself up without a word.

“Swing your leg back a little so you can gain more height. And spotting the ground over your shoulder while you’re in the air might help,” Mai suggested, her eyes on the mat as she thought about how to fix his flip. She couldn’t help feeling nervous every time he jumped. She was afraid he’d hurt himself, and she was always on edge the moment he left the ground.

Her mind was busy trying to figure how to help him land properly, and she didn’t realize she had leaned sideways onto his path. Wooyoung hadn’t voiced that he was trying again, and didn’t see how close the girl was until he was about to land. He retracted his leg to prevent himself from kicking her but in doing so lost his balancing, unable to control his momentum as they both fell back onto the ground.

Mai felt a jolt of pain from her wrist where she had tried to break her fall, and the movement of warm air by her neck. Her eyes flew open to see Wooyoung slowly backing up from the close proximity they were sharing; he had braced himself to keep his weight off of her.

“I’m sorry. Are you alright?” Wooyoung’s expression had softened a little as he looked at Mai in concern. She quickly nodded, tightly closing her left fist to disrupt the waves of pain coming from her wrist. The alternative of rubbing her wrist would have made it obvious that she had gotten hurt. As she made a move to stand, Wooyoung quickly pulled himself up, offering her a hand which she took with hesitancy.

“Let me see your hand.”

Mai looked up at him nervously. She didn’t want him to see that she had gotten injured. “Why?”

Instead of answering, Wooyoung reached for her left hand himself, revealing white knuckles from how tight she was clenching her fist. Noticing the lack of color in surprise, Mai immediately relaxed her grip and bit back voicing the sudden pain out loud. Wooyoung held onto her hand before she could pull it out of his grasp as he started massaging her wrist.

“You landed on your wrist. Sorry, I should have watched where I was going,” he commented, his focus on her hand.

Mai shook her head. “My fault. I was distracted, or I wouldn’t have been in your way.”

“Better?” He moved his eyes slowly back up to Mai’s face.

Mai nodded numbly. She kept her gaze fixated on her wrist, unable to meet his eyes. Wooyoung let go, and Mai took her hand back as she continued massaging it herself. For some reason, it had felt better when Wooyoung had done it for her, but she figured it was only because he had massaged her wrist with both his hands, while she only had one.

“I think all you’re missing is height in your flip,” she told him, trying to return the focus back to his stunt. Wooyoung merely nodded as he backed up and tried again. This time his landing was better, and a hint of a smile briefly crossed her face. The moment was brief, as Namyong’s sharp voice brought them both back to the others that were still practicing the routine. They were changing the transitions again and Namyong needed Wooyoung so that he could relearn the spots. He also added that she and Wooyoung would work on his stunt separately afterwards after they were finished pinning down the routine, and Mai could pick up the slight tension in his voice.

Although she wasn’t looking forward to more one-on-one time with the Busan boy, she had no time to dwell on the thought. Her bitter mood returned as she joined the head choreographer to deal with the tiring boys and their routine issues. One month. They had to get this down and perfect it in one month, along with the vocals that they would have to belt out as they danced. The pressure had never been higher.